A recap of last week’s championship chase opens this week’s SmackDown, leading into La Familia in the ring, with Edge announced by Tony Chimel as “the next world heavyweight champion”. Mick Foley calls the championship chase a farce. Edge says that he’ll be the next champion but Teddy Long interrupts and is subsequently berated by Vickie Guerrero for being late. Teddy reveals that he was at WWE HQ in a meeting about Vickie’s decision to strip The Undertaker of his title that she should have attended. He reads a letter from the board that states disciplinary action will be taken against her - either she must wrestle tonight and keep her position, or not wrestle and lose her position. Vickie tries to fire Teddy for going behind her back, but he quits before she can. Oh, and by the way, her opponent tonight is The Undertaker.

CM Punk defeats Great Khali Jr., Chuck Palumbo in a rematch from a couple of weeks ago. Loud “CM Punk” chants from the crowd as Palumbo sets up the Full Throttle which Punk reverses, throwing Chuck shoulder-first into the ringpost. From there, Punk nails the GTS and gets the decisive 1-2-3 for the win. Hopefully the whining Punk fans will now cease their vitriol.

Backstage, MVP, Finlay and Big Show all come in to bring up the “scam” of the championship chase and make fun of Vickie’s match with Taker later on tonight. This angers her so much that she makes MVP and a partner of his chase take on Finlay and Big Show tonight. The three men leave, but Chavo expresses his concern over being a pawn in last weeks events too.

Michelle McCool beat Layla via submission. The latter looked super hot. The former is still the most hateable person on TV. I’d rather have stared at a picture of Myra Hindley for ten minutes, but that’s SmackDown for you.

Batista hit’s the ring and reminds us of his pledge to hurt Shawn Michaels if he was faking the knee injury. He adds that he might be at Judgment Day, drops the microphone and leaves.

Big Show and Finlay team to face MVP and his partner of choice, Mark Henry. Despite the choice of partner, MVP runs right into a Chokeslam and Big Show gets the win for his team. Foley says that he wants to see Mark Henry and Big Show together, one on one. Really?

Vickie Guerrero speaks to the camera and directs her venom at the WWE board. Whilst she cannot stop the main event match tonight, she can change it - now, it’s The Undertaker vs. Vickie, Edge, Chavo Guerrero, Bam Neely and The Edgeheads.

Vladimir Kozlov defeats Funaki with the reverse DDT. Foley makes fun of his lack of music by singing a song for him. The fans make fun of his lack of charisma by giving him no reaction.

Maryse brings The Greasers (Deuce and Domino) to ringside for her match with Cherry. Their presence does nothing to help Maryse; Cherry lands a running bulldog for the win.

Matt Hardy is with Kofi and Eve backstage. Kingston congratulates Matt on the new DVD with the best promo ever. They leave and Shelton Benjamin interjects himself, claiming that the Hardys are the past. Matt responds by reminding Shelton that he has no gold, except for the stupid hair. That leads us to…

Hardy defeating Shelton Benjamin with a Twist of Fate in a short but fun little match. The current story is that Matt is the “fightingest” champion of all time.

The Undertaker goes to a no-decision with La Familia. Prior to the match, Chavo and Neely walk out on their team-mates, leaving Edge, Vickie, Ryder and Hawkins to face the Deadman. The three males of the group (make your own joke here) triple-team Taker but the Phenom manages to clear the ring and grabs Vickie by the throat, allowing Edge to spear him down and pull Vickie to the outside. The heels high-tail up the ramp as Taker does the cut-throat sign to end the show. {plug}